Nissen Osterneck

Former EliteXC heavyweight standout Dave Herman picked up what was arguably the biggest win of his young career on Saturday night, needing only a minute to dispatch of MMA pioneer Don Frye in the main event of Shark Fights 6 in Amarillo, Texas.

The elder Frye pushed for a takedown early on, but Herman was able to stay on his feet and battered the veteran with a flurry of punches that forced the quick stoppage. The win was the second in a row for Herman while Frye has now fallen in three of his last five appearances.

Former PRIDE Fighting Championships standout Ricardo Arona will return to active competition for the first time in over two years when he takes on fellow veteran Marvin Eastman at Bitetti Combat 4 this Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It will be the first fight for Arona since losing three out of four bouts under the PRIDE banner, including a brutal knockout at the hands of a streaking Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou at PRIDE 34 in April 2007. Eastman is coming off of a second-round TKO of Aron Lofton at a Maximum Fighting Championship show in May.

Here are your daily news and notes for the evening of January 22, 2009.

- Total Fighting Alliance veteran Bobby Green has agreed to step in as a last-minute opponent for UFC veteran Dan Lauzon at Affliction Entertainment’s “Day of Reckoning” show on Saturday night in Anaheim, California. If Green passes all required medical tests and paperwork in time for the event, he will be cleared to replace Chris Horodecki, who was forced off of the card because of a bulging disc in his neck.

- The Palace Fighting Championship has announced that their scheduled flyweight title bout between Rambaa Somdet and Pat Runez has been scrapped due to Somdet suffering from a pre-existing neck injury. “I thought I would be able to do it. I thought I would just fight as hard as I could in the first round,” Somdet said in a press release put out this afternoon. “It’s a pre-existing injury. I’ve had it forever six or seven years now. I think I have a torn tendon or something in my shoulder and I woke up after weigh-ins and I was in so much pain.”

Skilled grappler Nate Loughran, a student of former UFC middleweight title challenger David Terrell, could face former WEC competitor Nissen Osterneck in a middleweight bout at UFC Fight Night 18 on April 1.

According to

MMA Junkie, the fight has been offered to at least one of the fighters and UFC officials are currently attempting to put the fight together. The event is likely to take place in Nashville, Tennessee.

Loughran was victorious in his UFC debut this past July, submitting fellow newcomer Johnny Rees at UFC Fight Night 14, but fell to Tim Credeur during his most recent bout at the UFC’s “Fight for the Troops” after suffering an injury in the second round of their fight. The loss was the first of Loughran’s professional career.

The Florida State Boxing Commission has released the official list of medical suspensions stemming from this week’s WEC 36: “Faber vs. Brown” event, which took place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida on November 5.

American Top Team product Mike Brown upset top-ranked featherweight Urijah Faber in the show’s main event to claim the WEC featherweight title. Chael Sonnen was also victorious in his rematch against Paulo Filho and Leonard Garcia scored a first-round stoppage of Jens Pulver in televised bouts as well.

Brown has been suspended indefinitely, receiving the longest layoff by the commission after sustaining a rib injury during his win over Faber. David Avellan, who suffered a brutal 18 second knockout loss to Aaron Simpson, has been medically suspended for two months.

We will be going live at 5:30 PM ET with complete results from tonight’s WEC 36: Faber vs. Brown event, which will take place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The show’s televised main card will air on Versus starting at 8 PM ET.

WEC 36 is headlined by Urijah Faber once again defending his featherweight title against gritty top contender Mike Thomas Brown. In addition, WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho will meet Chael Sonnen in a non-title rematch of their December 2007 fight and former UFC lightweight title holder Jens Pulver will look to get back on track against rising featherweight Leonard Garcia.

Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments throughout the evening. Detailed live results are after the jump.

WEC middleweight title holder Paulo Filho came in an astounding seven pounds over the 185 lb. limit at the weigh-ins for WEC 36 on Tuesday afternoon, putting his championship rematch against Team Quest product Chael Sonnen in jeopardy.

After the two-hour allotted time limit, Filho was only able to cut down to 188 lbs, making his showdown against Sonnen a non-title affair. Sonnen will be awarded 25% of Filho’s purse.

In addition, featherweight title challenger Mike Brown came in a half pound over the featherweight limit and jiu-jitsu wizard Rani Yahya weighed-in one pound over the bantamweight requirements for his fight against Yoshiro Maeda. Brown was quickly able to shed the extra baggage while Maeda has agreed to face Yahya without forcing him to cut weight again.

Three Team Takedown members currently under contract to Zuffa-owned World Extreme Cagefighting have either had changes or additions to their upcoming fights according to a pair of reports from Five Ounces of Pain. Team Takedown founder Ted Ehrhardt reportedly confirmed all of the changes earlier today.

Budding prospect Jake Rosholt will now take on undefeated HDNet Fights veteran Nissen Osterneck instead of skilled grappler Danillo Villefort at a middleweight bout scheduled for WEC 36 on November 5. A reason for the change currently remains unknown and Rosholt will be moved over to the UFC following the conclusion of the fight, win or lose.

In addition, Johny Hendricks WEC debut has been moved from WEC 36 to WEC 37 on December 5. He will still face fellow welterweight Alex Serdyukov. Team Takedown lightweight product Shane Roller will also be in action at WEC 37 as he has signed to take on Mike Budnik.

WEC champions Paulo Filho and Doug Marshall will each defend their respective titles at World Extreme Cagefighting’s next event on March 26th.

The news comes from MMA Weekly, who reports that the promotion will now hold the event at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas instead of a previously mentioned location of Sacramento, California. Indications suggest that the idea of holding an event in the home state of WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber was scrapped after an attempt to schedule a bout between him and former UFC lightweight title holder Jens Pulver was unsuccessful.

Apparently Filho will once again defend his middleweight strap in a rematch against Chael Sonnen, whom Filho defeated in controversial fashion in December. Sonnen has kept his stance that he did not tell referee Josh Rosenthal to stop the bout while being trapped in a Filho armbar.

The fight will also likely be Filho’s last at 185 lbs according to boxing coach Josuel Distak, who stated last month that Filho has opted to move up in weight due to cutting problems.

While it might seem crazy that Filho is moving up in weight, he might be a good career move for the near future if he really is indeed having problems making 185 lbs. The WEC’s light heavyweight division is very stacked talent-wise and even though Filho would be still be undersized for the weight class, he would most likely tear through guys like Doug Marshall, Ariel Gandulla, and Brian Stann.

Speaking of Marshall and Stann, the two heavy-hitting light heavyweights are also expected to clash at the event in a battle that will see Marshall attempt to retain his belt against the popular U.S. Marine.

Additional bouts mentioned in the report include a meeting between welterweight title contenders John Alessio and Brock Larson in a fight where the winner may also be fighting the victor of the Carlos Condit-Carlo Prater welterweight title bout at some point later this year. Others were the following: Kenji Osawa vs. Chris Manuel, Marcus Hicks vs. Ed Ratcliff, and Bryan Baker vs. Nissen Osterneck.

So is Chael Sonnen fighting Paulo Filho or Nissen Osterneck in his next fight? No definitive answer as of right now except we know he’ll be fighting in March either way.

Last week we reported that World Extreme Cagefighting had offered Osterneck a fight against Sonnen within a package that included a multi-fight deal with the promotion. At the time, Osterneck had not yet made a decision but a new report from Brazilian website Tatame says different.

According to the report, WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho has accepted a rematch proposed by Sonnen.

The fight will also likely be Filho’s last at 185 lbs according to boxing coach Josuel Distak, who says that Filho has opted to move up in weight due to cutting problems.

“Last fight, Paulo was having a lot of weight problems, that’s why he wasn’t well,” said Distak. “Sonnen asked for a rematch and we accepted. This will be Paulo’s final fight at middleweight. After this, he’ll be moving up to light heavyweight.”

While it might seem crazy that Filho is moving up in weight, he might be a good career move for the near future if he really is indeed having problems making 185 lbs. The WEC’s light heavyweight division is very stacked talent-wise and even though Filho would be still be undersized for the weight class, he would most likely tear through guys like Marshall, Gandulla, and Stann.